ourlouisiana
Service Attendant
Our vacation plans had changed many times, and we had real tickets in hand on three occasions, having to make changes becasue of problems at work. Finally we reached a point where we said, NO !!! This is it. With each change, the people at reservations were great, laughing with us as we had to make yet another change.
We arrived at New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal about 45 minutes before departure time and went given the code to enter the Magnolia Room, the designated waiting area for sleeping coach passengers. My first thought was - it very small. NOUPT handles two daily trains - the Crescent and City of New Orleans; and the trice weekly Sunset. Though the Sunset had already departed, it was crowded when we entered.
The only bad part about traveling by sleeper is that it is a long walk to the front of the train !!! We departed New Orleans on time. As we approached Lake Ponchartrain, a large thunderstorm caught up to us with high winds swaying the trees. The scene was beautiful, with the Bonnet Carre floodway and the many egrets and other birds to our left. Shortly we were stopped at Frenier siding immediately adjacent to the shore of the lake.
From Ponchatoula northward it seemed as though the engineer was on the horn constantly, a reminder of the many collisions along this route. US 51 closely parallels the CN tracks for almost the entire length.
Being the railfan, I brought my scanner on this trip. Half of the detectors identify as CN, and half are IC. Seems as thought there is an identity crisis here. We met the southbound City of New Orleans at the siding just above the station at Hammond. McComb Mississippi has a nice display of an IC steam engine, boxcar, and caboose in a covered area beside the station.
Supper was announced shortly before arriving in Jackson Mississippi. To the east, you could see the dome of the state capitol. The Cross Country Café is unique. Our first thoughts were negative, a far cry from the old diner - but the seating is nice - booths throughout. The lounge is separate to the rear. Donna had the flatiron steak, well done, cooked to perfection, while I had the “special” crawfish etouffee. Being from south Louisiana, I found it very good. While it was seasoned, it was not extremely spicy - the way Cajuns eat it. The food was served quickly, and was temperature hot.
I asked our dining car attendant about the ride, it seems as though the CN main is very rough. Last year we took the Crescent from New Orleans to Philadelphia, and the ride was smooth. He said I was correct, he was on the Crescent and recently transferred back to the City, and the ride is definitely rougher.
Passing through the soybean, corn, and cotton fields we wondered about the plight of the farmers in the Midwest. While these crops are strong and healthy, the images we see in the media tell a sad story. We passed many grain trains, as well as unit coal trains. We took the siding only once to await a freight.
Our operating crew changed at Greenwood our last stop during the daylight hours. Later our attendant Jessica set up our bedroom. It was much easier than we thought. We opted to not set up the upper bunk, the lower was large enough to accommodate us. That turned out to be a mistake, the train movement caused it to make noise all night long. We showered and crashed, the heat from walking the French Quarter earlier in the morning caught up to us. Amtrak’s suggestion to shower while seated is a must. We arrived at Memphis Junction in the dark and rain, remember hearing the announcement on the PA system, but didn’t get up.
We awakened before daybreak flying through the fields of southern Illinois. Our attendant must have been an early riser because she had fresh coffee ready. Amtrak coffee is somewhere between the strong brew of South Louisiana, and the almost tea-like beverage served in Chicago. We opened the diner. That was our only disappointment, Donna had the French Toast, I opted for scrambled eggs. Both were served quickly but were only warm.
The towns were coming larger and closer together, then we were alongside Metra rails. It was Saturday, so although it was 0800, many trains were idle. Soon we were treated to the view of the Chicago skyline as we turned westward to back into Union Station. This was awesome !!! Our trip to Chicago was complete, 900 or so miles, on time all the way.
Our stay in Chicago was entirely too short, we arrived Saturday morning, and left Monday evening. We found a great value for a place to stay. If you are interested, contact us by e-mail. Chicago has a great transit system, however we had difficulty finding the stops. We did manage to find a Giordano’s out in Rosemont where we stayed, and yes, the pizza was good.
Monday morning, we went to Union Station and stashed our things in a storage locker only to find out later that we could have dropped it off at the Metropolitan Lounge at no cost. We returned from our exploration at 1700. Union Station at 1700 is a madhouse. We almost got run over by people running across the station .
The Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago is a large place, but then there are many trains that leave there. There are electrical outlets, wi-fi (free) and televisions too !!!. We were called to out train at 1900, a little later than we thought. We were told after placing our bags in our rooms to go to the diner. We were seated immediately, and joined by the couple in the next bedroom, Tonight the “special” was jambalaya, so we both ordered the Flatiron steaks. Our server suggested we order medium well, stating that well would be tough. Donna had to send hers back, there was still pink inside. As we were finishing our meal, we pulled out of the station, on time.. Surprisingly, we made a reverse movement again, leaving Chicago.
Shortly it was dark, having watched our attendant on the northbound train, we made our own beds, this time setting up the upper bunk. That’s when we noticed a problem, no water. Nor did our neighbors have any. Our attendant said it was most probably a valve that was closed outside of the coach, and he corrected the problem at our next stop. We showered and crashed again. On our trip on the Crescent last year, we took coach, because we were a party of 8. There was no sleeping, it is difficult to get comfortable. Lying down is totally different.
We were awake at daybreak again. This time we had to wait for coffee. Again, we were first in the diner, and joined again by our neighbors. Today the breakfast was perfect. We arrived at Memphis junction and though the bus was there, we had a long delay.. We left Memphis 45 minutes behind schedule. Our sleeping coach attendant seemed surprised that the room was put back in order with the sheets and blankets folded when he arrived.
The day passed quickly. Soon we were approaching Jackson, and went to the diner for our last meal. This time we were seated in a 3 person booth and were joined later by a Californian enroute to New Orleans the long way. Seems as though everyone was having the burgers. They were served almost immediately, and were temperature hot.
We had a few slow orders south of Jackson, CN does need to do some track work, but it seemed as though all of the work was involving changing crossings. Southbound we met many trains again, and were put in the siding twice, and had to stop on the main once to let a very long stack-manifest train re-enter the main after we passed the north end switch for them to clear the south-end switch.
Our engineer again seemed to stay on the horn from Osyka to Ponchatoula. All too soon we were making the turn in the wye to back into Union Station in New Orleans, our trip complete. Despite the 45 minute behind schedule in Memphis, we arrived 15 minutes early in New Orleans.
Overall observation, same as the last three trips we took on Amtrak. The trains are clean, as is the bedding, there are plenty of towels and blankets and pillows. Any problems were corrected immediately. Prices for on-board meals are reasonable, (if you are riding coach) the alcoholic drinks are somewhat pricy. One more observation, the northbound crews (both on-board and train operations) are more friendly and outgoing than are the southbound counterparts. That may be due to the fact that the southbound crews came up arriving the morning and departing the evening.
Yes we did take photos, they can be found at http://pbase.com/ourlouisiana in a gallery titled Chicago Trip. We took over 2000 photos, so they will be slow coming.
We arrived at New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal about 45 minutes before departure time and went given the code to enter the Magnolia Room, the designated waiting area for sleeping coach passengers. My first thought was - it very small. NOUPT handles two daily trains - the Crescent and City of New Orleans; and the trice weekly Sunset. Though the Sunset had already departed, it was crowded when we entered.
The only bad part about traveling by sleeper is that it is a long walk to the front of the train !!! We departed New Orleans on time. As we approached Lake Ponchartrain, a large thunderstorm caught up to us with high winds swaying the trees. The scene was beautiful, with the Bonnet Carre floodway and the many egrets and other birds to our left. Shortly we were stopped at Frenier siding immediately adjacent to the shore of the lake.
From Ponchatoula northward it seemed as though the engineer was on the horn constantly, a reminder of the many collisions along this route. US 51 closely parallels the CN tracks for almost the entire length.
Being the railfan, I brought my scanner on this trip. Half of the detectors identify as CN, and half are IC. Seems as thought there is an identity crisis here. We met the southbound City of New Orleans at the siding just above the station at Hammond. McComb Mississippi has a nice display of an IC steam engine, boxcar, and caboose in a covered area beside the station.
Supper was announced shortly before arriving in Jackson Mississippi. To the east, you could see the dome of the state capitol. The Cross Country Café is unique. Our first thoughts were negative, a far cry from the old diner - but the seating is nice - booths throughout. The lounge is separate to the rear. Donna had the flatiron steak, well done, cooked to perfection, while I had the “special” crawfish etouffee. Being from south Louisiana, I found it very good. While it was seasoned, it was not extremely spicy - the way Cajuns eat it. The food was served quickly, and was temperature hot.
I asked our dining car attendant about the ride, it seems as though the CN main is very rough. Last year we took the Crescent from New Orleans to Philadelphia, and the ride was smooth. He said I was correct, he was on the Crescent and recently transferred back to the City, and the ride is definitely rougher.
Passing through the soybean, corn, and cotton fields we wondered about the plight of the farmers in the Midwest. While these crops are strong and healthy, the images we see in the media tell a sad story. We passed many grain trains, as well as unit coal trains. We took the siding only once to await a freight.
Our operating crew changed at Greenwood our last stop during the daylight hours. Later our attendant Jessica set up our bedroom. It was much easier than we thought. We opted to not set up the upper bunk, the lower was large enough to accommodate us. That turned out to be a mistake, the train movement caused it to make noise all night long. We showered and crashed, the heat from walking the French Quarter earlier in the morning caught up to us. Amtrak’s suggestion to shower while seated is a must. We arrived at Memphis Junction in the dark and rain, remember hearing the announcement on the PA system, but didn’t get up.
We awakened before daybreak flying through the fields of southern Illinois. Our attendant must have been an early riser because she had fresh coffee ready. Amtrak coffee is somewhere between the strong brew of South Louisiana, and the almost tea-like beverage served in Chicago. We opened the diner. That was our only disappointment, Donna had the French Toast, I opted for scrambled eggs. Both were served quickly but were only warm.
The towns were coming larger and closer together, then we were alongside Metra rails. It was Saturday, so although it was 0800, many trains were idle. Soon we were treated to the view of the Chicago skyline as we turned westward to back into Union Station. This was awesome !!! Our trip to Chicago was complete, 900 or so miles, on time all the way.
Our stay in Chicago was entirely too short, we arrived Saturday morning, and left Monday evening. We found a great value for a place to stay. If you are interested, contact us by e-mail. Chicago has a great transit system, however we had difficulty finding the stops. We did manage to find a Giordano’s out in Rosemont where we stayed, and yes, the pizza was good.
Monday morning, we went to Union Station and stashed our things in a storage locker only to find out later that we could have dropped it off at the Metropolitan Lounge at no cost. We returned from our exploration at 1700. Union Station at 1700 is a madhouse. We almost got run over by people running across the station .
The Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago is a large place, but then there are many trains that leave there. There are electrical outlets, wi-fi (free) and televisions too !!!. We were called to out train at 1900, a little later than we thought. We were told after placing our bags in our rooms to go to the diner. We were seated immediately, and joined by the couple in the next bedroom, Tonight the “special” was jambalaya, so we both ordered the Flatiron steaks. Our server suggested we order medium well, stating that well would be tough. Donna had to send hers back, there was still pink inside. As we were finishing our meal, we pulled out of the station, on time.. Surprisingly, we made a reverse movement again, leaving Chicago.
Shortly it was dark, having watched our attendant on the northbound train, we made our own beds, this time setting up the upper bunk. That’s when we noticed a problem, no water. Nor did our neighbors have any. Our attendant said it was most probably a valve that was closed outside of the coach, and he corrected the problem at our next stop. We showered and crashed again. On our trip on the Crescent last year, we took coach, because we were a party of 8. There was no sleeping, it is difficult to get comfortable. Lying down is totally different.
We were awake at daybreak again. This time we had to wait for coffee. Again, we were first in the diner, and joined again by our neighbors. Today the breakfast was perfect. We arrived at Memphis junction and though the bus was there, we had a long delay.. We left Memphis 45 minutes behind schedule. Our sleeping coach attendant seemed surprised that the room was put back in order with the sheets and blankets folded when he arrived.
The day passed quickly. Soon we were approaching Jackson, and went to the diner for our last meal. This time we were seated in a 3 person booth and were joined later by a Californian enroute to New Orleans the long way. Seems as though everyone was having the burgers. They were served almost immediately, and were temperature hot.
We had a few slow orders south of Jackson, CN does need to do some track work, but it seemed as though all of the work was involving changing crossings. Southbound we met many trains again, and were put in the siding twice, and had to stop on the main once to let a very long stack-manifest train re-enter the main after we passed the north end switch for them to clear the south-end switch.
Our engineer again seemed to stay on the horn from Osyka to Ponchatoula. All too soon we were making the turn in the wye to back into Union Station in New Orleans, our trip complete. Despite the 45 minute behind schedule in Memphis, we arrived 15 minutes early in New Orleans.
Overall observation, same as the last three trips we took on Amtrak. The trains are clean, as is the bedding, there are plenty of towels and blankets and pillows. Any problems were corrected immediately. Prices for on-board meals are reasonable, (if you are riding coach) the alcoholic drinks are somewhat pricy. One more observation, the northbound crews (both on-board and train operations) are more friendly and outgoing than are the southbound counterparts. That may be due to the fact that the southbound crews came up arriving the morning and departing the evening.
Yes we did take photos, they can be found at http://pbase.com/ourlouisiana in a gallery titled Chicago Trip. We took over 2000 photos, so they will be slow coming.
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